Writing to Congress

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Many of us are angry and despairing at the political landscape, especially with the recent unprecedented threats to democracy itself in the United States.

Let's pool our brains and amplify our influence! Letters and phone calls to our elected officials make an impact, even if they don't always do what we ask, since they're ultimately concerned about "reelection, reelection, reelection".

Especially with help from our friends, it's not difficult to write letters calling for specific actions and telling powerful stories. We can share talking points, drafts, and letters we've sent, as well as problems we encounter and replies we get.

(The title refers to the U.S. system, but you're welcome to share how you're communicating with your elected officials in any country.)

If you read this group and haven't joined it, please consider joining! It'll encourage other AN members to be more politically active.

Discussion Forum

Two hundred years ago the founding fathers created three branches of government, assuming that one party wouldn't dominate all three at once, and assuming that the legislative and executive branch actually wanted to govern the country as a…Continue

The actions of the current administration have had me incensed practically from the time they took office. The depths to which they wish to descend appear to have few if any limits. However, with the current action being taken against immigrants…Continue

The following letter has just been posted to the following Congresspersons:Congresswoman Marcia FudgeSenator Sherrod BrownSenator Rob Portmanand will be shortly followed by hard-copy letters sent by US Mail:As you well know, the United States was…Continue

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Steven Menashi for a federal judgeship. He authored a paper arguing that ethnic diversity weakens a nation and that democracy needs ethnic homogeneity.

Our country was founded by people escaping religious persecution. Freedom of religion and separation of church and state are in the constitution. Yet President Donald Trump’s Labor Department just granted all federal contractors the “right” to “cite religious objections as a valid reason to discriminate against their workers on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, LGBTQ status, and other characteristics.” You cannot allow a quarter of all US employees to be subjugated to religious persecution. Moreover, any company wishing to improve their profit margin by discriminating against women or unmarried workers who are pregnant or parents or LGBT or racial or religious minorities now has a quick legal path to do so. One tiny federal contract, for example to provide soap to one facility, would instantly eliminate worker civil rights for their entire work force. This incentivizes employer lip service to phony religions to terrorize their workforce.

Center for Inquiry alerts us about H.R. 3654, the "Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act of 2019" that would expand the definition of chiropractors as "physicians" for Medicare, not just for spinal manipulation but for any dangerous pseudoscientific nonsense a state allows them to practice.

I've called my congressman to oppose the bill, which has limited bipartisan cosponsorship.

More info:

Center for Inquiry: "As with naturopaths, chiropractors are on a long-term mission to pass laws that elevate them to the same status as genuine primary care physicians, with an equally expansive scope of practice—including prescribing authority."

RationalWiki: "The theory behind chiropractic... is actually a dismissed 19th century hypothesis that has never survived scientific scrutiny... It seems likely that much of the benefit of chiropractic comes from the 'laying on of hands' and listening to the patient. There is no reason to believe this is any better than standard massage therapy..."

"The scientific consensus is that chiropractic manipulation may be as effective as other forms of manual therapy for lower back pain, but that there is a known and documented risk of death due to chiropractic manipulation of the neck.

As well as occasionally killing or disabling its patients... the chiropractic profession is notorious for recommending... indefinite courses of treatment...

So, chiropractic works about as well as mainstream physiotherapy for some conditions, claims to treat conditions it can't, has a tendency to try to bleed you dry, and might kill you. The phrase 'not recommended' sums this up nicely."

I too see Antifa as an anti-terrorist organization, despite their harassment of Nazis. According to the ADL (formerly called Anti-Defamation League), It

... is important to reject attempts to claim equivalence between the antifa and the white supremacist groups they oppose. The antifa reject racism but use unacceptable tactics. White supremacists use even more extreme violence to spread their ideologies of hate, to intimidate ethnic minorities, and undermine democratic norms. Right-wing extremists have been one of the largest and most consistent sources of domestic terror incidents in the United States for many years; they have murdered hundreds of people in this country over the last ten years alone. To date, there have not been any known antifa-related murders.

WHAT?! Literally lumping Antifa together with the Klan and the Mafia. If anything Antifa is an anti-terrorist organization!

On another subject, and related to the twomass shootings this weekend (32 dead), in Dayton, Ohio and at the El Paso, Texas Wal-Mart, and the shooting a week ago at the Gilroy Garlic Festival -- I'm angry that mass shootings have become almost routine, and that H.R. 1112 (strengthening gun dealers' background check procedures) and especially H.R. 8 (Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, requiring background checks through licensed dealers for most private gun transfers), have been stalled in the Senate, not even in committee, since February!

Yes, some of the blame lies with Mitch McConnell, but surely he could be shamed if not procedurally overridden by a large enough majority of senators. Where are Republicans speaking up and demanding action? Why did almost no Republicans vote for these bills in the House? Why is this a goddamned partisan issue?!

I called my Republican Senator, demanding that he take action to prove that Republicans aren't the party of death.

I'm outraged by your request to DOJ designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization and support for legislation to that end. Day after day White Supremacists CARRY OUT MASS SHOOTINGS, but Homeland Security doesn't classify them as terrorists any more. These Nazis are encouraged by the White House. You've just made it clear that you're "on their side" too. What the hell is wrong with you?

There's another bill parallel to the FIRE act, the Duty to Report Act (S. 1247) with 21 cosponsors including my Democratic senator, and the House version, the Corporate Duty to Report Act of 2019 (H.R. 2853).

I've called my congresscritters to urge support and cosponsorship (and thank the one who already cosponsored one bill).

(At the bottom of govtrack.us bill pages, under "Where is this information from?" the "congress.gov" link goes to the specific bill.)

Letter to senators: I urge you to only pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 if it includes the amendment blocking Department Of Energy reinterpretation of high-level radioactive waste for the state of Washington. The DOE claimed the authority to “interpret” what materials are classified as high-level waste based on their radiological characteristics. Congress specifically defined high-level radioactive waste in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and any reinterpretation of that definition should trigger a Congressional response. Congress defined reprocessing waste by its origin as High Level Waste because it’s necessarily both ‘intensely radioactive and long-lived.’ Some plutonium isotopes would take about 240,000 years before decaying away, and some uranium isotopes would stay radioactive for about 4.5 billion years.
The high-level radioactive waste at Hanover Nuclear Site, which is “caustic and extremely hazardous to humans and the environment”, would be under a layer of grout in leaking tanks directly adjacent to the Columbia River

I also urge you reign in EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler's assault on our water. Ignoring public alarm, the EPA is now weighing a rule change that could allow companies to release oil and gas industry wastewater into waterways that lead to farms, ranches, golf courses, lawns and drinking water supplies. The nearly 240,000 oil and gas wells within half a mile of a water body in the United States could become new sources of pollution if has his way. Exactly what toxins are in the 1 trillion gallons of wastewater is still an industrial secret.

I urge you to cosponsor and support the Climate Action Rebate Act, which aims to generate $2.5 trillion in revenues over 10 years starting in 2020. It would rebate about 70 percent of the money to families that make less than $130,000 per year, and use the rest for energy infrastructure, job retraining for fossil fuel workers, and research and development.

I urge you to pass the Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections Act (FIRE Act) introduced by Senator Mark Warner. The legislation would require campaigns to report any contacts with foreign nationals who are attempting to make campaign donations or otherwise coordinate with the campaign within a week of the contact. It would also require the preservation of any relevant documents or records regarding the contact.

Oppose Patrick Pizzella for Labor Secretary. His record, including lobbying with convicted felon Jack Abramoff on behalf of sweatshops and pushing anti-worker policies as a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority — make him unfit to lead the Department of Labor.